BATCH EQUIPMENT ROBOTS AND METHODS OF STACK TO ARRAY WORK-PIECE TRANSFER FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC FACTORY
The present invention generally comprises equipment for an automated high volume batch work-piece manufacturing factory comprising work-piece handling and work-piece processing in a high productivity factory architecture capable of producing 1,000 or more work-piece an hour. The work-pieces may be presented to the equipment from a stacked supply to a parallel array. Additionally, the work-pieces may be transferred between manufacturing architectures by an array to array batch transfer. The work-pieces may be transferred within the manufacturing architecture in a parallel to parallel batch transfer operation. The robotic operations may be between robotic devices, between robotic devices and processing equipment, and within processing equipment.
This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. APPM/011215/NBD/NBNP/KCHANG), filed on an even date herewith, U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. APPM/011212/NBD/NBNP/KCHANG), filed on an even date herewith, U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. APPM/011211/NBD/NBNP/KCHANG), filed on an even date herewith. Each of the aforementioned patent applications is hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally describe automated equipment for batch array work-piece handling and processing in a high productivity factory architecture sized for producing 1,000 or more work-pieces an hour and as high as 40,000 per hour or more.
2. Description of the Related Art
Solar energy from the sun may be converted to electricity by utilizing a solar power technology called photovoltaics (PV) that uses solar cells tiled into modules. Solar cells produce direct current electricity from the sun's rays, which can be used to power equipment, to recharge batteries, or be converted to AC power for on-grid applications.
Increased productivity for manufacturing of PV cells and modules requires batch processing of multiple solar cell work-pieces simultaneously if supply is to meet customer demand. To produce the PV cells and modules, numerous processes may need to be performed upon a work-piece. The work-piece may thus need to be moved from one processing tool to another processing tool with an efficient method. A processing tool may comprise one or more chambers coupled together. For example, a processing tool that performs a vacuum based process may comprise one or more processing chambers and one or more load lock chambers coupled together. For a non-vacuum process such as metrology, the processing tool may comprise one or more metrology chambers.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for achieving high productivity and low cost automated robotic handling of a plurality of solar cell work-pieces from one robotic device to another connecting process chambers and process equipment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention generally comprises equipment for an automated high volume work-piece manufacturing architecture comprising array work-piece handling and array work-piece processing organized in a regular fashion from a group of lines comprising parallel channels. For descriptive purposes, factory architecture supports a river of work-pieces comprising streams (lines) which are further sub-divided into one or more channels. Channels may operate in a continuous conveyor in some cases and in segmented piece-wise continuous batches in others. The batch array may be 1 or 2 dimensions, (i.e., 1×n or n×m work-pieces).
The work-pieces may be transported or presented to the equipment from a stacked supply to a parallel array of channels comprising a stream. Additionally, the work-pieces may be transferred between manufacturing architecture entities by an array to array batch transfer of channels. The work-pieces may be transferred within the manufacturing architecture in a parallel to parallel batch transfer operation as opposed to one work-piece at a time. The robotic operations on the streams of work-pieces may be between robotic devices, between robotic devices and processing equipment, and within processing equipment.
In one embodiment, a work-piece loading apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a work-piece dispenser capable of holding a plurality of work-pieces stacked vertically on top of one another, a retrieving bar having a plurality of work-piece retrieving members horizontally spaced across the retrieving arm, and an end effector capable of receiving the plurality of work-pieces simultaneously.
In another embodiment, a work-piece loading method is disclosed. The method comprises positioning a plurality of vertically stacked work-pieces adjacent a work-piece retrieving bar having a plurality of work-piece retrieving members horizontally spaced thereon, moving the work-piece retrieving arm into a position, retrieving a work-piece with a first work-piece receiving member, moving the work-piece retrieving bar relative to the plurality of vertically stacked work-pieces such that a second work-piece retrieving member is aligned over the plurality of vertically stacked work-pieces, retrieving a second work-piece with the second work-piece retrieving member, moving the work-piece retrieving bar into a position over an end effector, and placing the retrieved work-pieces onto the end effector.
In yet another embodiment, a work-piece loading method is disclosed. The method comprises retrieving a plurality of work-pieces one at a time from a work-piece dispensing device and simultaneously placing the plurality of work-pieces onto an end effector.
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention with particular one and two dimensional arrays and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements and features of one embodiment may be beneficially incorporated in other embodiments without further recitation.
DETAILED DESCRIPTIONThe present invention generally comprises equipment for an automated high volume work-piece manufacturing architecture comprising work-piece handling and work-piece processing.
The work-pieces may be transferred between processing tools along a processing line or stream by an array to array transfer whereby an array of work-pieces may be transferred from one processing tool to another processing tool as an array rather than individually transferring the work-pieces one at a time. The various processing tools may include one or more metrology tools. The processing tool may be arranged in a flow through manner whereby the processing tools are arranged in a linear fashion, a flow-by arrangement whereby the processing tools are arranged in a non-linear fashion, or a combination of flow through and flow-by arrangements. The work-pieces may be transferred within the manufacturing architecture in a parallel to parallel batch transfer operation. The robotic operations for the transfers may be between robotic devices, between robotic devices and processing equipment, and within processing equipment.
Whenever a processing tool within any processing line is shut-down, rather than shut-down the entire processing line containing the shut-down processing tool, work-pieces may be routed around the shut-down processing tool by transferring the work-pieces to an adjacent processing line within the FAB at an interchange node. The plurality of work-pieces may be transferred to other processing lines or streams through buffer or stocker stations. A buffer station may permit transfer between adjacent processing lines or streams while a stocker station may permit transfer between non-adjacent processing lines or streams. The buffer stations may additionally be used to store work-pieces while waiting to be disposed into the next processing tool. At a location after the shut-down processing tool, the work-pieces may be transferred back to the processing line containing the shut-down processing tool through buffer or stocker stations. After the processing within the processing line or stream is completed, the work-pieces may be transferred from an array arrangement back to a stack arrangement. During the time period that the processing tool is shut-down, the other processing lines within the FAB may increase their throughput in order to maintain a substantially constant optimum throughput for the FAB over a given period of time. As used throughout this application, the term array, sometimes referred to as a matrix, may be understood to encompass an arrangement of work-pieces in an n×m manner where n≧1 and m≧1 where at least one or n or m is greater than 1. An array is a set of photovoltaic work-pieces laid out in tabular form, often in rows, columns, or rows and columns. A batch array is a group of arrays. Batch array transferring refers to transferring a group of arrays.
While the description herein may comprise a discussion of batch work-piece transfer within processing tools, array to array transfer of work-pieces between tools, and stack to array work-piece transferring, the claims that follow may be directed to stack to array work-piece transferring.
The work-pieces may be inserted into the processing tool 102 by an insertion robot 106. The insertion robot 106 may be movable along a track 116 between a position where work-pieces may be disposed onto the insertion robot 106 and a position for disposing the work-pieces into the processing chamber 102. The insertion robot 106 may comprise an array end effector having one or more fingers 112 that extend from a palm portion 114. An end effector may comprise a device at the end of a robotic arm, designed to interact with an environment. The exact nature of the end effector depends on the application of the robot. The end effector is, in essence, the “hand” connected to a robot's arm which may retain the photovoltaic work-pieces. An array end effector is an end effector capable of retaining one or more arrays of photovoltaic work-pieces as opposed to a single work-piece. Each finger 112 may comprise one or more slots 126 for holding one or more work-pieces. In one embodiment, the array end effector may comprise eight fingers 112 with each finger 112 comprising eight slots 126. The slots 126 may be arranged on the array end effector to have a plurality of rows of slots 126 along the plurality of fingers 112. While the invention is described below within regards to eight fingers 112 having eight slots 125, it is to be understood that more or less fingers 112 having more or less slots 126 may be utilized depending upon the desired batch work-piece size and required equipment throughput.
The work-pieces may be disposed onto the array end effector by a stack-to-parallel loader robot 104. The loader robot 104 may comprise one or more work-piece retrievers 124 disposed on a bar 122. In one embodiment, the one or more work-piece retrievers 124 may comprise eight work-piece retrievers 124. The bar 122 may be movable within a plane perpendicular to track 116 upon which the insertion robot 106 may move. The bar 122 may extend from a movement mechanism 120 that moves along a track 118 for positioning the work-piece retrievers 124 selectively over the work-pieces and the slots 126 on the fingers 112 of the array end effector.
The track 118 upon which the movement mechanism 120 of the stack-to-parallel loader robot 104 moves may be positioned above the fingers 112 of the array end effector of the insertion robot 106 by a post 210. The movement mechanism 120 may move the bar 122 upon which the one or more work-piece retrievers 124 are disposed over the fingers 112 of the array end effector as well as a stack of work-pieces 216 disposed in a work-piece dispenser 214 disposed on top of a post 212. The stack of work-pieces 216 in the work-piece dispenser 214 saves valuable storage space because the work-pieces are vertically stacked within the work-piece dispenser 214.
During processing, the movement mechanism 120 positions the appropriate work-piece retriever 124 over the stack of work-pieces 216 as shown in
After each work-piece 304 is retrieved, the movement mechanism 120 moves the bar 122 along the track 118 as shown by arrow “C” (
Once each work-piece retriever 124 has retrieved a work-piece 304 from the work-piece dispenser 214, the movement mechanism 120 disposes each work-piece retriever 124 over a corresponding slot 126 on a finger 112 of the array end effector (
As more and more work-pieces 304 are retrieved by the work-piece retrievers 124 on the stack-to-parallel loader robot 104, the array end effector of the insertion robot 106 begins to enter into the processing tool 102 through the opening 208a as shown in
After all of the work-pieces have been disposed into the processing tool 102 by the insertion robot 106 (
Once the work-pieces 304 have been disposed within the processing tool 102, the array end effector may be retracted by the insertion robot 106 along the track 116 from the processing tool 102. While the work-pieces 304 are processed within the processing tool 102, additional work-pieces 304 may be disposed onto the array end effector of the insertion robot 102 by the stack-to-parallel loader robot 104. Following the completion of processing, the work-pieces 304 may be removed from the processing tool 102 through the slot 208b by a robot having a similar arrangement as the insertion robot 106. The work-pieces may be unloaded from the removing robot by a parallel-to-stack unloading robot similar to the stack-to-parallel loader robot 104. In one embodiment, the work-pieces 304 may be removed from the processing tool 102 after processing by the array end effector of the insertion robot 106 and unloaded from the array end effector of the insertion robot 106 by the stack-to-parallel loader robot 104.
It should be understood that while only two processing tools 1408 have been exemplified, more processing tools 1408 are possible. Additionally, each processing tool 1408 refers to one or more chambers coupled together to accomplish one or more processing steps in a manufacturing process. The one or more chambers may comprise load lock chambers, processing chambers, metrology chambers, etc. The processing chambers may comprise CVD chambers, PVD chambers, etching chambers, cleaning chambers, etc.
The transfer robot 1402 may be surrounded by as many processing tools 1408 as will fit within the processing space. When more than two processing tools 1408 are present, it may be necessary to provide branches in the track 1404 to permit the array end effector 1406 of the transfer robot 1402 to access the additional processing tools 1408.
As may be seen in
The array end effector 1406 may retrieve the work-pieces in a manner similar to that discussed above in relation to
Once the array end effector 1406 has retrieved the work-pieces 1502, the robot 1402 retracts the array end effector 1406 from the processing tool 1408 as shown in
Once the array end effector 1406 is in position, the transfer robot 1402 moves the array end effector 1406 along the track 1404 to extend the fingers 1414 into the processing tool 1408 as shown in
The robot 1412 extends the array end effector into the processing tool 1408 and retrieves the work-pieces 1502 as shown in
Similarly, for a linearly arranged FAB 2350, the processing lines 2352, 2354, 2356, 2358 may be substantially identical with a plurality of processing tools 2362 arranged therein. Array end effectors 2358 may move along a track 2360 with each array end effector 2368 able to access multiple processing tools 2362. The array end effector 2368 may move as shown by arrow “M” to access the processing tools 2362 or rotate and extend as shown by arrows “N” to a buffer station 2364 to permit transfer of work-pieces between adjacent processing lines 2352, 2354, 2356, 2358. To transfer work-pieces to processing lines 2352, 2354, 2356, 2358 that are not adjacent, a stocker station 2366 may be used to transfer work-pieces. The stocker station 2366 may transfer work-pieces up and over to additional processing lines 2352, 2354, 2356, 2358 or permit transfer over distances greater than an array end effector 2368 may extend.
After processing, the work-pieces 2424 may be removed from the processing chamber 2412.
Transferring the work-pieces from one processing tool to another by maintaining the work-pieces in a parallel orientation may improve work-piece throughput. By storing the work-pieces in a vertical stack and then loading the work-pieces parallel across an array end effector, valuable space within a factory may be saved. Additionally, a great number of work-pieces may be loaded onto the array end effector for simultaneous processing within a processing tool. A parallel to parallel transfer of the work-pieces within a processing tool may permit multiple chambers to be coupled together within a processing tool. Thus, the present invention saves valuable floor space within a factory while providing a large work-piece throughput.
While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.
Claims
1. A photovoltaic work-piece loading apparatus, comprising:
- a photovoltaic work-piece dispenser capable of holding a plurality of photovoltaic work-pieces stacked vertically on top of one another;
- a retrieving bar having a plurality of work-piece retrieving members horizontally spaced across the retrieving bar, wherein each retrieving member is individually capable of retrieving one photovoltaic work-piece until a plurality of the retrieving members on the retrieving bar have retrieved a work-piece; and
- an array end effector capable of receiving the plurality of work-pieces simultaneously from the plurality of work-piece retrieving members on the retrieving bar after each of the plurality of work-piece retrieving members on the retrieving bar has each individually retrieved one photovoltaic work-piece.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the array end effector comprises a plurality of fingers having one or more slots within which one or more work-pieces may be disposed.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the work-piece dispenser is vertically movable to a position where the plurality of work-piece retrieving members may retrieve the work-pieces.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the retrieving bar is movable laterally to retrieve one work-piece in each work-piece retrieving member.
5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the array end effector is movable in a direction perpendicular to the lateral movement of the retrieving bar.
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the array end effector is movable vertically to simultaneously retrieve a work-piece from each work-piece retrieving member onto the array end effector.
7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the retrieving bar further comprises one or more side supports adjacent one or more work-piece retrieving members of the plurality of work-piece retrieving members.
8. A photovoltaic work-piece loading method, comprising:
- positioning a plurality of vertically stacked work-pieces adjacent a work-piece retrieving bar having a plurality of work-piece retrieving members horizontally spaced thereon;
- moving the work-piece retrieving bar into a position such that one work-piece retrieving member of the plurality of work-piece retrieving members is disposed over the plurality of vertically stacked work-pieces;
- retrieving a work-piece with a first work-piece retrieving member of the plurality of work-piece retrieving members;
- moving the work-piece retrieving bar relative to the plurality of vertically stacked work-pieces such that a second work-piece retrieving member of the plurality of work-piece retrieving members is aligned over the plurality of vertically stacked work-pieces;
- retrieving a second work-piece with the second work-piece retrieving member;
- moving the work-piece retrieving bar into a position over an array end effector; and
- placing the retrieved work-pieces onto the array end effector.
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:
- supporting the retrieved work-pieces with one or more side supports disposed adjacent one or more work-piece retrieving members of the plurality of work-piece retrieving members.
10. The method of claim 8, wherein the placing the retrieved work-pieces onto the array end effector comprises raising the array end effector and then releasing all of the work-pieces simultaneously from the work-piece retrieving members.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the array end effector comprises a plurality of fingers and the placing comprises placing the work-pieces on the array end effector such that each work-piece is positioned within a slot on a different finger.
12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:
- advancing the array end effector forward after placing the retrieved work-pieces thereon; and
- retrieving additional work-pieces.
13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:
- advancing the array end effector forward after placing the retrieved work-pieces thereon; and
- retrieving additional work-pieces.
14. The method of claim 8, further comprising raising the plurality of vertically stacked work-pieces an incremental amount after each retrieving.
15. A photovoltaic work-piece loading method, comprising:
- retrieving a plurality of work-pieces one at a time from a work-piece dispensing device; and
- simultaneously placing the plurality of retrieved work-pieces onto an array end effector.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the retrieving further comprises:
- retrieving a work-piece from the work-piece dispensing device;
- raising unretrieved work-pieces an incremental amount; and
- retrieving another work-piece from the work-piece dispensing device.
17. The method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of work-pieces are linearly spaced across the array end effector.
18. The method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of work-pieces are vertically stacked in the work-piece dispensing device.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:
- moving the retrieved work-pieces horizontally relative to the vertically stacked work-pieces and placing the retrieved work-pieces on the array end effector.
20. The method of claim 15, further comprising:
- advancing the array end effector; and
- repeating said retrieving and said placing.
Type: Application
Filed: May 11, 2007
Publication Date: Nov 13, 2008
Inventors: ROBERT Z. BACHRACH (Burlingame, CA), Avi Tepman (Cupertino, CA), Alexander S. Polyak (San Jose, CA)
Application Number: 11/747,525
International Classification: B65G 59/00 (20060101);